Slam-Bang Comics Vol 1 1
Villains: * gang boss ** gangsters * The Witch * Dragon of Smoke Other Characters: * rookie patrolman Locations: * ** "the great city" *** Cafe Imperial *** slum district **** Witch's hovel Items: * Lansing's Miraculous Diamond | Writer2_1 = | Penciler2_1 = | Inker2_1 = | Colourist2_1 = | Letterer2_1 = | Editor2_1 = Bill Parker | StoryTitle2 = Tom Sharp, War Bird: "The Sermian Mystery Planes" | Synopsis2 = A French air base on the Western Front comes under attack from Sermian Mystery Planes. On hand is expatriate American pilot Tom Sharp, nicknamed "War Bird" by his colleagues. Tom takes off in an obsolete scouting plane, and engages the Sermian enemy, a single pilotless plane. The Sermian drone is armed with an "Elecray," which kills Sharp's plane's engine, and sends him spiraling earthward. By dint of his superior flying skill, Tom straightens out the plane and lands safely. The next morning, the Sermians attack in greater numbers, again with robot planes, and armed with the Elecray weapons. French machine gun ammunition is heavily but uselessly applied against empty cockpits, and the advanced electrical weapons take a heavy toll on the defenders. Captain Sharp has meanwhile been taking apart his disabled plane/s engine, and figuring out what kind of device was used on it. He reports his findings to the Major, then takes off on a scouting mission. He searches until he finds the camouflaged Sermian air base. He snoops around. Tom learns that the Sermian commander, Von Kruhl, will be directing the next air attack from nigh overhead, in his radio transmitter plane. Then he breaks into a hangar and wrecks a couple of Sermian planes, then fights his way out of the hanger, reaches his plane, and returns to the French airfield, and reports his new findings to the Major. Very soon the Eagle Squadron are attacking the Sermian air base, tangling again with the robot planes, while Tom Sharp singles out Von Kruhl's command aircraft and attacks it. He kills Von Kruhl, which causes his plane to crash, which destroys his transmitter, which causes all the Sermian planes to crash. | Appearing2 = Featured Characters: * Supporting Characters: * French Flying Corps ** Eagle Squadron * The Major, Sharp's boss. Villains: * Sermian Air Force ** Von Kruhl, (wears a monocle) *** Sermian aviators, soldiers, mechanics, etc. Locations: * Items: * Sermian Electray, aircraft-mounted weapon Vehicles: * French open-cockpit light fighter planes * Sermian empty-cockpit heavy fighter planes | Writer3_1 = | Penciler3_1 = Gus Ricca | Inker3_1 = Gus Ricca | Colourist3_1 = | Letterer3_1 = | Editor3_1 = Bill Parker | StoryTitle3 = Jim Dolan: "The Legacy of Tony Bono" | Synopsis3 = Jim Dolan, former FBI man, now the hard-hitting editor of Daring Detective Magazine, typically goes out and finds unsolved crimes, then writes them up in his magazine. As a result Daring Detective is the biggest sensation in the magazine world. He has famously smashed a taxi racket, rescued a kidnapped heiress, and overpowered a phantom axe murderer. On the scheduled day of cop-killer Tony Bono's execution, Dolan interviews Bono about the location of the loot that he stole from the Welfare League. Bono doesn't say where it is, but asks Dolan to tell his wife to "read the Psalm on page 555 of her Bible." Not far from the prison, Jim is jumped by four thugs, one of whom head-konks him unconscious with a club. He wakes up in their hide-out, and the thugs' boss wants to know what Tony Bono told him. Dolan tells them nothing. Outnumbered seven to one, Dolan fights his way out of the hide-out, leaps aboard a passing cab, and escapes. He hastens to Mrs. Bono's home, on the Lower East Side, which he finds fully ablaze! Despite warnings from cops and firemen, Jim races into the building, and finds Mrs. Bono, tied to a chair. He grabs her and her Bible, and leaves via the window, jumping into a firemen-held catch-net, barely in time to escape the building's collapse. On page 555 of Bono's Bible is the , and Dolan deduces that "Green Pastures Cemetery" is a place that he should visit, that very night. But meanwhile back at his office, he finds his secretary Sally Alden has been kidnapped, with a signed warning note from Spike Rossi left on his desk. That night Dolan visits the cemetery anyway, and finds three of Rossi's thugs coming out of a mausoleum with a big sack of money. Dolan punches one and shoots one, then overtakes the one with the money, and gets some info out of him at gunpoint: Rossi is waiting, with the girl, on a motor launch anchored out in the bay. Dolan takes this tool to the Harbor Police, to whom he is well known, and gets a motorboat ride out close to the Spike Rossi's launch. Dolan swims the rest of the way there, sneaks aboard, and dukes it out with three thugs, then on his gunshot signal the cops move in and secure the vessel. Miss Alden is rescued, the Welfare League loot is recovered, and Jim Dolan has another scoop for the readers of Daring Detective Magazine. | Appearing3 = Featured Characters: * Supporting Characters: * Sally Alden Villains: * Tony Bono * Spike Rossi ** at least six henchmen Other Characters: * Mrs. Bono Locations: * ** Daring Detective Magazine Office ** Lower East Side home of Tony Bono ** Green Pastures Cemetery Items: * Tony Bono's Bible Vehicles: * Police Motorboat | Writer4_1 = | Penciler4_1 = Harold Wilson Sharp | Inker4_1 = Harold Wilson Sharp | Colourist4_1 = | Letterer4_1 = | Editor4_1 = Bill Parker | StoryTitle4 = Lucky Lawton: "Man with a Badge" | Synopsis4 = Itinerant cowpoke Lucky Lawton gets talked into becoming the Marshal of El Rio, a very violent town, out west. Crimes here are run from behind the scenes by the local lawyer and one crooked deputy. The new marshal makes a point of enforcing the town's existing "No Guns" law, and kills seven villains in the process of doing so. | Appearing4 = Featured Characters: * Supporting Characters: * Pal, Lucky's dog * Jane Curtis * Mayor Jeff Curtis Villains: * Spiven * Barren * Dexter * Deputy Brody * Lawyer Reynolds * two bandits Locations: * Western United States, ** El Rio | Writer5_1 = | Penciler5_1 = | Inker5_1 = | Colourist5_1 = | Letterer5_1 = | Editor5_1 = Bill Parker | StoryTitle5 = Lee Granger, Jungle King: "King of the Jungle" | Synopsis5 = Noted Scientist-Adventurer Lee Granger takes a secret flight across the most dangerous part of Africa, investigating reports of a renewed slave trade in the region. Two of the traders, Hassan and Ali, have learned of his plan and rigged his plane with a bomb. Granger reaches the suspect area, just before the bomb blows his plane out from under him. Lacking a parachute, he makes ingenious use of his voluminous overcoat, and lands alive. Immediately a troop of Pygmy spearmen charges at him. Lee bumps the Chief back against one spear, which is poisoned strongly enough to almost kill him. Granger uses modern first-aid techniques to save the chief's life, and befriends the tribe. Granger settles in; he builds himself a brick house in the Pygmy village, and teaches his new friends how to capture and domesticate zebras, for farm work, and how to smelt and forge iron ore into tools, and how to make electrical batteries from acid and metals. Over time, the Pygmies build themselves a sturdy little town. One day a lion grabs a Pygmy farmer and drags him away into the bush, but Lee Granger lassos the beast, straddles it and ties its jaws shut, loads it in a wagon, and conveys it back to town. In his laboratory, Granger performs an electrical experiment on the lion, which gains the ability to speak. Lee teams up with the Lion, who is soon named Eric, and who makes peace with the Pygmy people also. One day Hassan and Ali show up, leading a caravan of Arab slave traders, heading toward the Pygmy town. Eric the Lion spots them, and runs to tell his master. One Arab rifleman is briefly fooled by Eric into believing he has killed the big cat, but when the gang approaches the lion, and it speaks to them, they flee in terror. Still, Eric has been shot, and it slows him down a little bit getting back to the town, where he tells the people about the caravan, while Granger patches up his wound. The next morning the raiders fan out across the fields and advance toward the town, rifles ready. Ali and Hassan rejoice to find the prosperous-looking abandoned village, and incautiously walk in to loot it. Hassan steps into a snare and is yanked aloft; Granger and his pals help themselves to his clothing, and soon Lee has disguised himself. He signals the raiders to run across an open space to join him; the space is actually a pit-trap, dumping the raiders into an underground river. After that, Granger decides to stick around, and the Pygmy people declare him their king. | Appearing5 = Featured Characters: * Supporting Characters: * Villains: * Ali, slave trader * Hassan, slave trader ** their caravan, horses, camels, and men Other Characters: * Pygmy Chief ** Pygmy Spearmen Locations: * Sub-Saharan Vehicles: * Granger's Single-seat Open-cockpit Monoplane | Writer6_1 = | Penciler6_1 = Mike Suchorsky | Inker6_1 = Mike Suchorsky | Colourist6_1 = | Letterer6_1 = | Editor6_1 = Bill Parker | StoryTitle6 = Hurricane Hansen: "The Rescue of the Britania" | Synopsis6 = The Kazilians Navy has captured the luxury liner "Britania" and is moving it to a secret port. American-born British Naval Captain Hurricane Hansen, in command of a disguised British warship, is dispatched to recover the Britania. Hansen's vessel is a sea-raiding gunboat, disguised as a tanker. Out at sea, his vessel is spotted by a Kazilian submarine, which surfaces and fires a warning shot across Hansen's ship's bow, signaling that it should stop. Cannon fire is exchanged, and the sub fires a torpedo. Hansen's crew deflects the incoming torpedo from hitting their hull by lowering a log into its trajectory, and bouncing it harmlessly over the height of the ship. More cannon fire is exchanged, and the sub escapes the shoot-out by submerging. Hansen's raider is equipped with depth charges, and destroys the submarine with its first drop. The search for the SS Britania continues, and a hurricane is encountered. Hansen sends all hands belowdecks, and spends the night alone in the pilothouse, steering his ship thru the storm. The next day, a lookout spots the Britania, escorted by two Kazilian battleships. Hansen's innocent-looking tanker maneuvers closer to the nearest battleship, then fires a torpedo and unlimbers its cannons; the battleship sinks, but the element of surprise is gone now. The second battleship maneuvers into position, and Hansen moves to keep the Britania between his ship and the enemy, then launches a radio-controlled aerial torpedo; the second battleship sinks. As the sea raider approaches the liner, they are surprised by a shot from a cannon, which the prize crew have set up on the deck. With unusually precise gunnery, the raider's crew is able to destroy the gun position without damaging the rest of the liner, then they climb aboard. The Kazilians have a machine gun and they don't stop fighting until it's destroyed with grenades. A few Kazilian prisoners are locked in the sea raider's brig, and Hansen steers the recaptured passenger liner back to Britain, with Appleby, his executive officer, following along at the helm of the gunboat. Hansen's superiors are very pleased with his results. | Appearing6 = Featured Characters: * Supporting Characters: * Appleby, second-in-command ** Sea Raider Crew Villains: * Kazilian Navy Other Characters: * Royal Navy ** British Admiral, Hansen's Boss Locations: * Vehicles: * Hansen's Sea Raider, a gunboat disguised as a tanker * SS Britania * Kazilian Submarine * two Kazilian Battleships | Writer7_1 = | Penciler7_1 = | Inker7_1 = | Colourist7_1 = | Letterer7_1 = | Editor7_1 = Bill Parker | StoryTitle7 = Mark Swift: "The Time Retarder" | Synopsis7 = In Greenville, grade school history teacher Rodney Kent, and young Mark Swift who lives at his house, have built a Time Retarder. They time-travel to 940 AD, and hover over a beach, in northern North America, as it is discovered by Vikings. One landing party goes ashore, and is attacked by red skinned savages, who abduct Princess Elisha and wipe out her retinue. A second boat goes ashore, led by Eric, the Viking chief. Kent and Swift approach him on foot, and Kent converses with Eric in the Viking's own language, and tells them which way the natives went. They haven't gone far, before the Vikings soon are ambushed, but this fight goes differently, and the red men are routed. Mark follows their trail, and by nightfall they've reached the Indian camp. The Vikings hear Elisha crying out, and led by Eric they charge into the camp! Shouting wild war cries, the outnumbered Norsemen chop a swath through the native warriors, while Kent and Swift set fire to their teepees. But Indian reinforcements arrive, and soon almost all of the interlopers are dead, save only Kent, Swift, Erik, and Elisha. They are tied to stakes until the next morning, then Eric is thrown into a large cage, with two very large and angry eagles. Eric has a broadsword, and just keeps chopping until the monster birds fall dead. The Indians try again, this time with a dragon. After a slightly longer fight, the outcome is the same. All the braves charge in to pile onto Eric at the same time, and they've got spears. But just then the dragon's mate arrives, and attacks everybody. The Indians flee; Eric lashes together three dropped spears, fights the second dragon, and soon is riding it like a bronco! Under Eric's control, the giant beast attacks the Indians, who flee. Eric and Elisha and their two new friends then ride the dragon back to the landing site of the "History Express," where they say their farewells, then Kent and Swift climb into the Time Retarder and depart. | Appearing7 = Featured Characters: * Supporting Characters: * Rodney Kent Villains: * Red Men Other Characters: * Eric (may be ) ** Viking Crew * Princess Elisha Locations: * Greenville, 20th Century * , 10th Century Vehicles: * Time Retarder, the "History Express" | Notes = * Diamond Jack Lansing's miraculous diamond was given to him by an old magician. ** The Witch in this story is not any of these Witches, but a one-time, stand-alone villainess. * Hurricane Hansen's Kazilian enemy's "battleships" look like destroyers, and old, small destroyers at that. ** Hansen's ship has no hull number and seems to have no name, in this introductory story. Next issue it will be called the "Surprise." * Jim Dolan has already had a career in the FBI and has been a crime-magazine editor for some time, before his first published adventure here. In this issue he gets his first recorded blunt-instrument head trauma. * Also appearing in this issue of Slam-Bang Comics were: ** Slam-Bang Gags by Jack Cole ** "Tree-Top Murder" (text story) | Trivia = | Recommended = | Links = * Read the complete issue at the Digital Comic Museum }} Category:Time Travel/Appearances